


Familiar Stranger

by vayleen



Category: Sailor Moon - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-02-18
Updated: 2006-02-18
Packaged: 2017-12-08 19:35:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/765209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vayleen/pseuds/vayleen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She listened to it whenever she knew that she was alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Familiar Stranger

**Author's Note:**

> Sailormoon R Anime-verse. Angst.

Usagi distracted herself with it. She listened to it whenever she knew that she was alone – sometimes she had to make herself alone in order to do so; like sneaking off at lunch to the rooftop, avoiding her friends, or locking herself in her room. It was as though she could find sanctuary in a tiny, star-shaped locket. Serenity.

How ironic.

Usagi was doing just that as she walked down the sidewalk after leaving the Crown Game Center. It was her first day back at school and her second emergency haircut with Minako, this time in the arcade’s washroom. Not long after Usagi made a flimsy excuse that no one believed and left. As soon as she could, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the locket.

_You’re being weird, Usagi-chan,_ she thought to herself, _All depressed and stuff._

Just then she looked up. What she saw made her gasp in shock.

It was Mamoru. But that was impossible because Mamoru was kidnapped by the Dark Kingdom which was who-knows-where. And yet seeing him would explain the appearances of Tuxedo Mask, even though she couldn’t explain the motives behind his attacks on the Sailor Senshi. (Or she didn’t want to.) But it looked just like him – same prestigious posture, same arrogant walk, same nose stuck habitually in some textbook. Everything was the same. And he was walking away from her.

“Mamoru-san,” Usagi whispered. “Mamoru-san,” she said again, louder, as she started to walk faster. “MAMORU-SAN!” Usagi shouted as she ran towards the tall brunette man.

Usagi ran right up to him and crossed his path but he just side-stepped her and kept going. Now that she was closer there was no mistaking that it was Mamoru walking away like he didn’t even know her. “Mamoru-san!” She ran up and tugged on the arm not carrying the book and pulled it from his pocket. In the next instant her wrist was caught in his hand and the book he was carrying clattered onto the pavement. It all happened so fast that her cry was more from surprise than from pain.

“Who are you?” His was the same except for the dangerous edge that was alien to Usagi.

He looked her up and down and than removed his sunglasses, the exact same pair that Mamoru always wore. Usagi almost cried when she saw Mamoru’s blue eyes looking at her without any hint of recognition. “Mamoru-san, it’s me, Usagi. Don’t you know me?” He was hurting her wrist. She started to struggle but that only made him grip her tighter.

“Those names don’t mean anything to me,” he said. He released her arm so quickly that she had to step backwards to keep from losing her balance completely. Then he turned at walked away.

Usagi noticed that he left his book on the pavement. “You left your book!” she shouted.

“I’ll buy another one,” he called back.

_Buy another one?! That arrogant jerk... wait,_ Usagi thought, shaking her head. How easy it was to slip into old habits and feelings of rivalry. Now she really was going to cry.

Usagi started walking again with her locket softly playing its small melody. Not that it was much of a comfort now with Mamoru... without his memory and attacking her soldiers. She absorbed herself in the light display and thought about when Tuxedo Mask told her to keep the locket. Even then the Senshi were warning her to stay away from him.

Usagi let out a startled squeak when she felt strong hands grasp her body and pull her into an alleyway. The locket fell down her body and clattered to the ground as she was shoved unceremoniously against a wall. “What the hell?” she shouted. She hissed and struggled until her eyes finally met her assailant’s. “Mamoru-san!”

“Stay here,” the dark man said darkly. He turned around and picked up the fallen locket by the chain and held it up to her. “What’s this?” he asked.

Usagi made a grab for it but the tall man easily held it above her reach. “Give it back Mamoru-baka!” she shouted.

“Why do you keep calling me that?”

“It’s your *name*!”

“You’re not being very nice,” he said, a dangerous smile on his lips.

“I... I just don’t understand you,” Usagi whispered, giving up on her attempt to recover her locket. “Why are you acting like this?”

He wasn’t listening to her. His gaze was intent upon the star-shaped locket dangling from its chain between them. “The melody this locket sings tugs painfully at my soul as though it’s trying to recover memories long... lost...”

“Mamoru,” Usagi whispered hopefully.

He dropped the chain. Usagi jumped for the locket and caught it between her hands and he took hold of her shoulders and shoved her back against the wall. “I don’t know who you are, little girl,” he whispered into her ear. “But I’ll find out.” Then he was gone. Vanished into thin air.

After he disappeared, Usagi could still feel his presence from the reminiscent feeling of his breath in her ear and the pressure on her shoulders from where he probably bruised her. She looked down at the locket in her hands and opened it. To her relief, it started to play. She was so afraid that it broke when it hit the pavement. “Mamoru-san,” she whispered as the music played, 

“Don’t worry... I’ll save you.”


End file.
